AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He wasn’t in with us.”
“Now that’s surprising. So how do you know Castillo was in with the wrong people?”
“Because he didn’t fulfill a promise.”
Cora stepped away from the door, careful to move over a body and keep her distance.
Her gun was still aimed at the small mobster. She wasn’t pressed for time in the same way she might have been opening fire on normal guards in a normal club. Of course, if that had been the situation, she never would have done it. But rather, in a mobster’s hideout, the cops weren’t going to be called. Undoubtedly, reinforcements would show up, but no cops. And besides, she had her ticket out of here, sitting in that chair.
She said, slowly, “So who is Castillo in bed with?”
“We’re not involved. It’s not us.”
“Who?”
“A very powerful drug ring.” A shrug. Anger now, “Presumptuous people. People who don’t respect tradition.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what that means.”
“Need me to point and grunt again?”
She smirked. “What’s this powerful drug ring?”
“A super cartel.”
She stared.
He shook his head. “Not from a foreign shore but run domestic. Right here in Florida. Funded through a big Pharma company gone bust.”
“It sounds like something out of a movie.”
“I don’t know about that. Regardless...” he shrugged.
But she shook her head. “That’s not enough. Who is funding this cartel? What do you mean they’re not foreign but domestic?”
“There’s a man,” said Alex slowly. “He spent five years for a white-collar crime. Got out and started funneling his money into organizing a few of the smaller gangs. People we had control of. Like I said, no respect.”
Cora grinned. “Are you telling me these guys won in a turf war against you?”
“I’m saying,” he continued, “that they are expanding rapidly. And the man who funded this, the one who spent time in prison for corruption and for white collar crime, guess who his brother is.”
Cora whistled. “Castillo?”
“One and the same.”
“So, the mayor and his brother are running a super cartel?”
“The mayor isn’t running anything. He’s in his brother’s pocket. A skeletal, thin little man called Warbucks.”
She asked, “the one funding all of this? The mayor’s brother?”
“There you go. So, you have the answers. Now what?”
“Why tell me that? That felt a little easy.”
He smiled. He gave her a look. “Because you’re a dead woman. And it’s been fun talking to a dead woman. I didn’t know ghosts knew how to communicate.”
Cora studied him closely. “Mind telling me what you mean?”
